RICHMOND, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Harris Williams & Co., a preeminent middle market investment bank focused on the advisory needs of clients worldwide, announces the sale of Ameriforge Group, Inc (Ameriforge), a leading, vertically integrated manufacturer of highly engineered products, subassemblies and integrated systems for the oil and gas, midstream, downstream, power generation, aerospace, transportation and industrial markets, to First Reserve Corporation (First Reserve) and management. Harris Williams & Co. acted as the exclusive advisor to Ameriforge, which was a portfolio company of Post Oak Companies LP, an affiliate of Tanglewood Investments Inc. (Tanglewood). The transaction closed on December 20, 2012, and was led by Drew Spitzer, Brian Lucas, Luke Semple, Chris Burnham and Eric O'Brien from the firm's Energy & Power (E&P) Group as well as Hiter Harris and Jeremy Eberlein.

Ameriforge is a privately-held Houston-based company with a global footprint across 29 facilities that provides a range of highly engineered products, including turnkey solutions such as drilling risers and gas turbine combustors, subsystem components such as drill riser assemblies, production riser assemblies, BOP assemblies and buoyancy modules, and individual parts such as machined and fabricated products. The company also further supports its diverse customer base by providing a variety of complementary aftermarket services. During the company's partnership with Tanglewood, Ameriforge transformed from a $30 million North American focused single location flange forging company to an approximately $1 billion fully-integrated, multi-facility international manufacturing enterprise.

Tanglewood, located in Houston, TX, is a private equity firm with a focus on growth through innovative strategies and operational excellence founded to address the need for equity capital and management expertise in established middle market equipment manufacturing companies serving the energy industry. Since 1997 approximately $75 million of equity capital has been invested through affiliates of Tanglewood and, pro forma for completion of this transaction, approximately $675 million will have been returned to Tanglewood's investors. In addition, an affiliate of Tanglewood continues to own one remaining portfolio company that is attributable to its original investor group.

Founded in 1983, First Reserve is a leading global investment firm dedicated to the energy industry with over $23 billion of raised capital since inception. With offices in North America, Europe and Asia, First Reserve is well-positioned to make strategic investments on a global basis across the energy value chain. First Reserve seeks to create value for its investors by applying its deep industry knowledge, decades of investing and operational experience, highly talented management team and powerful network of global relationships to its investments and through active monitoring of its portfolio companies.

The firm's E&P Group has experience across a broad range of sectors, including oil and gas equipment and services, energy efficiency and clean tech, industrial and infrastructure services, power products and technology, engineering and construction, and environmental services. For more information on our energy and power experience, please contact Drew Spitzer or Tiff Armstrong at +1 (804) 648-0072.

Investment banking services are provided by Harris Williams LLC, a registered broker-dealer and member of FINRA and SIPC, and Harris Williams & Co. Ltd, which is authorized and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. Harris Williams & Co. is a trade name under which Harris Williams LLC and Harris Williams & Co. Ltd conduct business.